Despite the horrendous terrorist acts of September
11, 2001, the annual ORCA Convention was held in Columbia, South
Carolina, September 13-15. The complete halt of all air traffic limited
the attendance, as members called in all during the week to cancel their
reservations.
There were some calls to cancel the convention, but
the officerrs who had made it to Columbia by Tuesday decided to continue
with all plans, even if on a limited basis. The purpose of terrorism is
to put fear into people and to force them to curtail their way of life,
and it was helt that to cancel the convention was to allow them to win.
Members had already arrived from all over the US,
and a check of members license plates in the parking lot on Tuesday
evening showed New York, Ohio, Illinois, Idaho, Alaska, Florida,
Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, and perhaps others.
There were many informal reel discussions held in
rooms througout the day on Wednesday, as more people arrived. The halls
of the Travelodge Suites were alive with the sounds of music - Cozzone,
Meisselbach, Vom Hofe, Meek and Milam - resounded through the day.
Groups gathered in rooms looking at, or discussing reels, with one eye
on the TV sets for the latest updates.
Formal convention events began on Thursday afternoon, with
several seminars on various reel topics. Scheduled discussions on
Automatic Reels by Don Woodhouse, and Early South Bend Reels by Len
Sawisch were cancelled as these experts were unable to get to Columbia.
However, very lively seminars were presented by Bill Peters about
tournament casting, Phil White, the Evolution of the Carlton-Rochester
Reels, Mike Goff on The Shakespeare Miller Autocrat Reel, Harvey
Garrison on the assembly of the Shakespeare Beetzel Reel, and Craig
Barber (shown at the right) with An Overview of pre-1920 Pflueger Reels.
These discussions were conducted in a meeting
room in the hotel, and attended by most of the members who were able to
make it to the convention. These seminars seemed to be well received,
and were very informative.
Following the seminars, the ORCA officers present
at the convention held a round table discussion with the members to get
their input on some new ideas the ORCA Board was considering. These
included an ORCA display to set up at some of the major shows, six
issues of the Reel News, cooperative association with some of the modern
day major fishing tackle companies, an ORCA Hall of Fame, and others. It
was a lively discussion with many good ideas surfacing.
The round table meeting was followed by a pizza
supper and drinks provided by ORCA for all members and their families.
The display room was then set up and a couple of hours of buy, sell and
trade followed. It was a very successful day, with a great deal of
information available to ORCA members who attended the various events.
Friday morning the show opened with several new members setting
up their tables, and some frenzied buying as usual.
Friday also brought those in attendance the
opportunity to look at the wonderful display provided by Shakespeare.
The Shakespeare display consisted of material
from the Shakespeare and Pflueger archives. The reels on display were
overwhelming. The exhibit included all types of reels from modern
production reels to prototypes that were never put into production, to
early reels and catalogs. The importance of many of the items on display
was overwhelming. (To see some of the reels displayed,
click here)
Members who were not in attendance missed the
opportunity of a lifetime by not attending their convention. Most in
attendance could almost feel the presence of William Shakespeare Jr.,
and the Pflueger brothers when looking at some of their personal reels
and thoughts and ideas that they tried out but never put into
production. The display was awesome.
Roxanne Coleman and her helpers from Shakespeare
deserve our profound thanks for helping ORCA members gain a better
perspective of reel development by two of the major manufacturers of the
twentieth century. ORCA also owes Stu Lawson and Craig Barber a great
deal of gratitude for sorting through the reels and selecting a nice
variation of items to study and observe.
The
National Antique Tackle Casting Contest
In mid-afternoon the show hall was closed, and
the members adjourned to the Sesquicentennial Park. At the park we had a
very nice area for the National Antique Tackle Casting Contest.
Due to the Tuesday tragedy, many of the entrants
in the casting contest were unable to participate. However, the quality
of competition in this year’s contest was the highest ever.
The Non Level Wind event kicked off the three
events. The total score of the events is added together, and the member
with the highest score is crowned the National Antique Tackle Casting
Champion. The winner of the Non Level Wind event was William Peters of
Ohio (shown in photo to the right), with a score of 594 out of a possible 600. William used a Langley
Target reel on his bamboo rod in the competition. Dan Basore of Illinois
was second, using a Jack Welch Tournament reel, and last year’s Champion
Phil White of Idaho was third using a Meek Tournament reel.
The second event was the Level Wind casting reel
event. A score of 594 propelled Dan Basore to the winners circle in this
event. Dan used a Shakespeare Sportcast reel. William Peters and Phil
White tied for second with 592 scores. Peters was also casting a
Shakespeare Sportcast, and White used a J. A. Coxe 25N. The closeness of
the scores in the first two events led to the possibility that either of
the three top casters could win the Championship, depending upon who was
able to shoot the best score in the newly added Spinning contest.
With the pressure building, William Peters came
through, and won this event and totaled enough points to pull out the
National Casting Championship. Peters cast with a Mitchell 308 CAP reel
on a conventional spinning rod to just edge Basore, 595 to 594. Again
Phil White trailed the two deadeyes for third. Basore cast with an ABU
spincast reel, and White used an Orvis 100 manual spinning reel.
William Peters final score was 1781 out of a
possible 1800. His name will be engraved on the ORCA National Antique
Tackle Casting Contest plaque, which will be given each year with the
winner to keep until the next contest. Potential entrants in next years
contest were given instruction by Peters and Basore following the
contest. Peters has won National Casting Championships in the past, and
he gives all ORCA members something to shoot for in future years. Get
out your rods and reels, buy an ORCA practice plug from the ORCA Store,
and be ready for Lansing, Michigan in May.
The
Ugly Reel Throwing Contest
`The first annual Stu Lawson Ugly Reel Throwing
Contest was held in the park following the completion of the Casting
Contest. Harvey Garrison had the ugliest reel anyone had ever seen
(photo below), so
he led off the event. Several members then followed with some truly
Olympian throws of really ugly stuff. Perhaps we can petition the
Olympic Committee to include this event in the next Olympics, and rid
the world of some international ugly reels. The event was divided into
a Fresh Water Division - under 100 yards, and the Salt Water Division of
over 100 yard reels. The reels were thrown from home plate on a baseball
field. After all contestants had made their throws, the membership
walked the outfield to find the reels and determine the winners.
Show host Craig Barber had a mighty heave with
his Shakespeare Service reel to outdistance the field. At press time The
Reel News is uncertain if this result will be used in a Shakespeare
advertising campaign in the future.
Phil White tossed a really bad Martin Automatic
reel to win the Fresh Water event. Automatic reels skip beautifully on
the grass surface. Jack Gallagher’s exploding South Bend Automatic reel
brought tears of laughter to the audience. Jack let loose with a mighty
heave and the top cap came off the reel, the spring flew one direction,
the cap another, and the spool a third. It was ruled that Jack came in
second, third, and fourth in this division.
The contest was great fun, and Stu Lawson will
get the results of the contest. Perhaps by next year these reels will
reside in the bottom of Monterey Bay.
Shakespeare
had most graciously donated several reels from their current lineup for
ORCA to raffle for members who attended the convention. The youngest
ORCA member in attendance, John Sheridan pulled tickets for the raffle,
and many members went home with a great usable souvenir of the weekend.
Most of those in attendance went out to dinner
together Friday evening in a local buffet restaurant, and belly’s seemed
a little larger than usual when the show reopened at 7 PM. Bill Crowley
and George Canzeri tried to get to the dinner, but missed out when Bill
insisted on turning right instead of left on the highway.
Show
Display Awards
During the evening the results of the judging of
the displays was announced. The first place plaque went to Phil White
for his "Evolution of a Reel" display which illustrated the evolution of
the Carlton-Rochester casting reels. ORCA Librarian Harvey Garrison won
second place with his Shakespeare Display, and Craig Barber took third
with a Pre-1920 Pflueger Reel display. These displays are a major part
of the ORCA Convention, and it is hoped by all that members will
continue to bring items from their collections to display so that all in
attendance can enjoy and learn from each other.
The show hall opened at 8 Saturday morning and there were several
new attendees waiting at the door. Buy sell and trading continued
throughout the morning, but by noon time most tired but happy ORCA
members were ready to head for home and look at all their new treasures.
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